On January 6, a modern express reporter learned from the Kun Theater of Jiangsu Performing Arts Group that Zhang Jiqing, a famous Kunqu performing artist, a national first-class actor and a representative inheritor of Kunqu opera of the national intangible cultural heritage project, died in Jinling at 12:56 at the age of 83. Zhang Jiqing is the winner of the "Plum Blossom Award", the highest award of the first Chinese theater performing arts, and her role of Du Liniang is stunning and has become a classic of a generation. "Mr. Zhang Jiqing has been through the ages! The moonrise rebirth light is red again! "Danjiao sacrifice wine, she is the most beautiful queen in my heart" "Grandma Zhang's song has been heard hundreds of times"... For a time, countless opera lovers and people in the industry were grief-stricken, and they wished that the heavens would open up all over the place and meet her again under the beautiful scenery of the good day.
△ Netizens remember
She is the "first plum" in the country and once brought Kunqu opera abroad
In the pear garden industry, Zhang Jiqing won a reputation for playing "Frightening Dreams" and "Dream Hunting" in "Peony Pavilion" and "Dreaming" in "Zhu Maichen's Divorced Wife", so that the audience could see the soul flying out of the sky, and won a reputation: "Zhang Sanmeng", and some people called her "Queen of Kunqu Opera", and the plum blossom award, the highest award for drama, was set up because of her.
△ "The most beautiful Du Liniang" Zhang Jiqing Courtesy of Kun Theater of Jiangsu Performing Arts Group
In 1983, at the invitation of Drama Newspaper and Drama Series, she entered Beijing to perform "Three Dreams". After watching her performance, the theater masters on the stage were full of praise. Zhang Jiqing once told the Modern Express reporter, "At that time, there were no awards for actors in the country. In order to promote the prosperity of various drama genres in the country, the Chinese Drama Association decided to set up the opera 'Plum Blossom Award', and the experts gave me high scores, so I became the 'first plum' in the country. ”
Zhang Jiqing was also the first person in China to bring Kunqu opera overseas. Before the 1980s, Peking Opera martial arts were generally performed abroad, because there were many martial arts moves and few lines, and foreigners could understand them. Kunqu opera, on the other hand, uses lines from 600 years ago, which is difficult to understand. In 1980, Suzhou and the Italian city of Venice formed a sister city. Later, Venice, Italy, invited Peking Opera from Suzhou to perform, and at the same time, the mayor of Venice personally ordered Zhang Jiqing to perform together. Because of the language problem, Zhang Jiqing has always been worried, can Italians understand Kunqu opera? But when the first performance ended, the applause was endless, and the curtain was thanked more than 10 times, and the audience still refused to leave.
The troupe's groceries are packed by one person, and they practice 3 skills every day to sing a good voice
Time pulled back to the 1930s, Zhang Jiqing was born in Wuqing Town (now Wuzhen) in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. At that time, Wuzhen was shrouded in the artillery fire of the War of Resistance Against Japan, but Zhang Jiqing, who had just been born, cried twice with a loud "singing voice", so that the family was forced to transfer their hiding place and evade the bomb attack.
In the scattered childhood, food and clothing are the biggest hopes. But when it comes to Kunqu opera, Zhang Jiqing feels that he is very lucky. When she was a child, she was in the tea house in Suzhou Town, holding her brother while watching her grandfather play the huqin, which she thought was very interesting. At the age of 14, because of her family's poverty, she was introduced to the Minfeng Su Troupe. Zhang Jiqing once recalled this time in an interview with the Modern Express reporter: "At that time, managing tea, moving props, running dragon sets, pulling the curtain, etc. were all wrapped up by me. "When pulling the curtain, she always secretly watched the plot on the stage on the side of the stage, secretly imitating, because watching the drama was too fascinating, either the curtain was pulled early, or the curtain was pulled late, and even the curtain was pulled backwards.
In 1954, Zhang Jiqing, who had long been intoxicated with opera, finally waited for the opportunity to learn opera. She received guidance from Kunqu opera elders You Caiyun, Zeng Changsheng and others. Later, the local government in Suzhou invited teachers of the "Chuan" generation to teach drama and asked highly skilled martial arts teachers to teach gong. Because of Zhang Jiqing's eagerness to learn, he was loved by the Kunqu master Yu Xihou, at that time, Yu Xihou stipulated that Zhang Jiqing must practice 3 gongs a day, 20 times a day, count and sing with matchsticks, less than 20, and never end. Day after day, Zhang Jiqing finally practiced a wide, thick, crisp and bright voice.
"I don't want anything else, I just want to pass on kunqu opera"
In 2003, at the insistence of Bai Xianyong, Zhang Jiqing, who had always insisted on teaching only students not to accept apprentices, made an exception and accepted three apprentices in one go: Shen Fengying, Gu Weiying and Tao Hongzhen of the Suzhou Kun Opera Troupe, and later Zhang Jiqing accepted Shan Wen, an actor of the Kun Theater of Jiangsu Performing Arts Group, as an apprentice. In 2009, Zhang Jiqing taught 26 students in a middle-aged and young Kunqu opera actor study class organized by the Ministry of Culture and was named the "most serious teacher".
After struggling for Kunqu all her life, someone asked Zhang Jiqing what other wishes she had, and her answer was so simple: "There is no other wish, it is to take students!" In the past, my main responsibility was acting, and I concentrated on acting well; now my main responsibility is to be a teacher, and I teach drama well. I want nothing more than to pass on kunqu opera. ”
The Modern Express reporter learned that in recent years, Zhang Jiqing is still doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work, and many plays of the Kun Theater of Jiangsu Performing Arts Group have to ask her to "take the pulse". Off the field, she always "buckled the play" for the actors so carefully, and the concerned eyes were so warm, in 2019, her apprentice Shan Wen successfully picked "Plum", and her winning play was "Peony Pavilion" taught by Teacher Zhang Jiqing.
From youth to middle age, Zhang Jiqing used the most beautiful time to write Kunqu opera, and in her later years, she "entangled" her years with Kunqu in another way, and her songs will always be fragrant in people's hearts.